Saturday, September 25, 2010

Europe's leaders recently looked on in astonishment as the French President shouted at Jose Manuel Barroso, accusing him of insulting the honour of France by pressing ahead with an inquiry into its treatment of the Roma. According to witnesses, Mr Sarkozy flew into a rage during the lunchtime altercation after rejecting a "half-apology" from Mr Barroso over a senior commissioner's attack on the French measures as being reminiscent of ethnic transfers that took place in the Nazi era.

Mr Barroso was said to have become visibly angry at the way in which Mr Sarkozy referred to EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding throughout his diatribe as "that woman". Mr Barroso later accused Mr Sarkozy of using "useless rhetoric" to distract attention from his eviction policy. Mr Sarkozy repeatedly vowed to press on repatriating Roma and dismantling their camps around France.

The row was the culmination of days of increasingly bitter exchanges between Paris and Brussels, as France, a founder member of the EU and self-proclaimed champion of human rights, faces the prospect of legal action to force a change in its law to give better protection to ethnic minorities.

Sarkozy said German Chancellor Angela Merkel had "expressed her total solidarity" and he had similar support from Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker and the leaders of Bulgaria and Romania, who have received most returning Roma. However, a German source said later: "That is nonsense. Merkel thought what Reding said was excessive but she never went into the details of the expulsions."

Monday, September 20, 2010

Sushi is a Japanese dish consisting of cooked vinegared rice which is commonly topped with other ingredients, such as fish or other seafood, or put into rolls. Sliced raw fish by itself is called sashimi, as distinct from sushi. Sushi that is served rolled inside or around dried and pressed sheets of seaweed (or nori) is makizushi. Toppings stuffed into a small pouch of fried tofu is inarizushi. A bowl of sushi rice with toppings scattered over it is called chirashi-zushi. There are many other types, such as nigirizushi, oshizushi and so on.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Choi + Shine architects recently received the 2010 Boston Society of Architects award for unbuilt architecture for their project “The Land of Giants”, which they originally designed for the icelandic high voltage electrical pylon competition back in 2008.

The architects created a series of towers that are powerful, solemn and variable. These iconic pylon-figureswill become monuments in the landscape.The pylon-figures can be configured to respond to their environment with appropriate gestures. As the carried electrical lines ascend a hill, the pylon-figures change posture, imitating a climbing person. Over long spans, the pylon-figure stretches to gain increased height, crouches for increased strength or strains under the weight of the wires.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

1) French Senate voted to ban Islamic full veil in public

France's Senate has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would ban wearing the Islamic full veil in public. The ban will come into force in six months' time if it is not overturned by constitutional judges. The ban has strong public support, but critics point out that only a tiny minority of French Muslims wear the full veil.

Spain and Belgium are debating similar legislation, and with such large-scale immigration in the past 20 or 30 years, identity has become a popular theme across Europe, according to correspondents. On Tuesday, the Senate voted 246 to 1 in favour of the bill.

The bill makes it illegal to wear garments such as the niqab or burka, which incorporate a full-face veil, anywhere in public. It envisages fines of 150 euros (£119) for women who break the law and 30,000 euros and a one-year jail term for men who force their wives to wear the burka. The niqab and burka are widely seen in France as threats to women's rights and the secular nature of the state. (BBC)

2) Deportations of Roma people

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding has urged the European Commission to take legal action against France over its deportations of Roma (Gypsies).

“The Roma have long been a pariah people. Poorly understood, highly suspect, and the subject of pervasive myths, the Roma of Europe have been persecuted and marginalised for centuries. The latest move on the part of the French authorities to forcibly displace and return over 700 Roma and destroy over 50 camps, is another example of the intolerance of European society, and the unwillingness of national authorities to look at social issues in an evidence-based way. Over the next few weeks and months, other countries in Europe may be tempted to follow the model that France has initiated. If they do, it will constitute one of the largest forced displacements Europe has seen since the Balkan War.” (ICMHD)

Sunday, September 12, 2010

“Bugatti Veyron Super Sport is the fastest production car ever built, and this is not what just because the ones that built the supercar say it, but because Guiness Book of World Records say it.

The Guiness Book officials were the first outside VW Group to see the new Bugatti Veyron at work. And really saw something extraordinary, because this new hypercar set a new speed world record for production cars and the Volkswagen’s testing circuit, Ehra-Lessien, reaching 268 mph, or 434,211 km/h. The Germans were very confident about their latest creations and before showing it to the public they put it to such a test in order to have something to brag about.

This record was facilitated by the new power peaks Veyron Super Sport reaches, the horsepower plant with 16 cylinders developing 1,200 HP and 1106 lb-ft of torque. The 20% enhancement of the power was possible thanks to the changing of the 4 turbo units with some bigger ones and of the intercoolers.

This model was launched in August at Peeble Beach Concours, and the first 5 units called World Record Edition were already sold. We still don’t know at what price, because it was not yet disclosed." ( in MIBZ)

Monday, September 6, 2010

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Artist Dalton Ghetti, a Brazilian native now living in the USA, has been carving miniature sculptures into the graphite of pencils since he was a school boy in Brazil.

However, he makes a living as a carpenter. He received his associate’s degree in architecture from Norwalk Community Technical College. Perhaps the most surprising thing about Ghetti’s sculptures is that he does not use a magnifying glass of any sort while creating his pieces.

He does them all by hand and most of the time all he needs is a razor blade, a sewing needle, and very bright light. In order to protect his eyes and keep them from getting tired, he only works on his pencils for about an hour and a half a day. The time restraint and the tiny, intricate details make for a long process; his pieces can take months to years to complete.

It took Ghetti about two and half years to complete Alphabet, a set of 26 pencils with each letter of the alphabet carved into the tip of the graphite. The letters are in perfectly block shaped, reminiscent of letter magnets.

In recognition of his career as a carpenter, he has also created a series of mini sculptures of tools such as a hammer and a saw.

Ghetti’s work was recently exposed at the New Britain Museum of American Art in the exhibition Meticulous Masterpieces: Contemporary Art by Dalton Ghetti, Les Lourigan, and Jennifer Maestre.

I've just received these awards from the brazilian blog “BE MY GUEST IN RIO”, owned by Vania Moreira. They’re very nice and I really loved them.

Thank you so much, dear Vania, you are lovely!!!

Awards meaning is something given to a person or a group to recognize excellence in a certain field, a certificate of excellence. Although the usual procedure is to share it with 5 friends, who will be mentioned and linked in a post, I decided to act different:

I will share it with all my friends, as I recognize the excellence of their friendship, respect, politeness and loyalty to me , as well as the great job on their blogging. I have all of them in high consideration and I do believe that all of them deserve to be awarded, for the reasons previously mentioned.

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